Originally Posted by
Oblique
I have been at Airnet the past week for NIFA and from what I understand you can basically show up with commercial, instrument, and multi to get hired. They hired a pilot with only 7 multi hours! It could be a bunch of BS because Airnet is in need of pilots. Unfortunately most of the students here are naive college students.
If you don't mind breaking FAR's then Airnet is for you. One pilot said he has only done 5 missed approaches in the past 6 years working at Airnet. They get mad at their pilots when they have to go around.
Another thing bad about Airnet... Two pilots lost their job because they were trying to do a barrel roll in the Lear 60 yesterday. They went from 40,000 to 4,000 and stressed the wings and elevators enough you can see lumps. I'll try to get a picture tomorrow. Sounds like they hire safe pilots to me.
Oblique -
Wow. Quite an indictment of AirNet from someone who has spent but a week in the company of those that helped host your event. Your bitter tone might lead one to believe that you applied to AirNet but did not get the call.
While what you state is essentially correct, that one only need acquire commercial/instrument/multi to be considered for employment at AirNet, you may be missing the point. FAR's state that in order for a pilot to act as PIC in IFR conditions under part 135 they must meet certain minimum requirements. If you review FAR 135.243c you will see that you must have 1200 total time, 500 cross country, 100 night and 75 actual or simulated instrument (of which 50 must be in flight) in order to qualify. AirNet will consider you for employment with less, but you will not be qualified to act as a PIC under part 135 operations. What you will be able to do is build PIC time as the pilot flying and acting as the sole manipulator of the controls in the presence of the PIC assigned for that flight. You will have the opportunity to build time in this manner until you meet 135.243c qualifications. At this point you will be able to bid for your own run.
As for your "breaking FAR's" comment... you cast a pretty wide net. In my two years on the line I can tell you exactly how many times I've gone missed. ZERO. While luck does play a very small part in that (no vehicles or aircraft on the runway, no microbursts on final or rapidly declining weather inside the final approach fix, etc.), it is due to the fact that we FOLLOW the FAR's that we so rarely go missed. If you will review 135.225a2 you will see that we are not authorized to begin any approach procedure unless "... the latest weather report issued by that weather reporting facility indicates that weather conditions are at or above the authorized IFR landing minimums for that airport." If we don't have the weather minimums then we don't shoot the approach. Period. If you don't shoot an approach that has weather below landing minimums then your likelihood of going missed is pretty small. As I said... I have gone missed zero times. I certainly have diverted due to unforcast weather, but I didn't shoot an approach that didn't meet FAR requirements. I've even held at the outer marker waiting for the weather to improve above minimums... and when it didn't I went somewhere else. That's what the FAR's say, and that's what we do. The comany doesn't get mad at me for following the rules. They acknowledge that I am the PIC responsible for the safe operation of that aircraft and that I am the final say as to when I do or do not go.
Finally... the Lear Jet. Get your facts straight.
1. Lear 35, not a Lear 60
2. January 10th, 2007, not yesterday
3. Started between FL210 and FL200, NTSB report didn't state recovery altitude
A very, very unfortunate incident precipitated by some etremely poor decision making and CRM. Both of these pilots are fortunate that all they lost were their jobs and their licenses. The airplane was totaled. Very expensive lesson learned.